With Focus on BP, Don’t Lose Sight of Fracking Issues

July 12th, 2010. By AbiK

I’m sure you’ve been hearing about the new oil well cap that’s—possibly—going on the BP well today in the Gulf. It’s been top news all weekend—that, and of course Spain and Lance Armstrong. But crawling around in the background has been a little news story that you most likely missed. About another fossil fuel: natural gas. About Fracking. And, about cattle.

Yes, cattle.

First, some background. I’ve been posting about hydraulic fracturing (aka “fracking“) in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia and how not everyone is thrilled that they’re living on top of a veritable gold mine of natural gas. Most of those who oppose fracking are concerned about the possibility of contamination of underground sources of drinking water (usdw). The idea behind fracking is that once a well is drilled into reservoir rock, a mixture of water and high viscosity fluid additives (i.e., chemicals) is injected into the rock to force the rock to fracture. A propping agent, like sand, is then pumped into the fractures to keep them open. The fractures then allow the natural gas to flow more freely to the production well that can then bring the gas to the surface.

Sounds simple enough. But then, what about those fractures? The process sort of assumes—and I imagine that most of the time this is true—that anything flowing from the fracture is flowing in one direction: toward the production well. But funny thing about nature is that it’s unpredictable. And, gee, what if something started travelling (leaking!) out of the fracture in another direction—say, into the surrounding ground?

Ok, that’s where the cattle come into play.

Just last week in Pennsylvania, reports came out that agriculture officials had quarantined 28 beef cattle. Why? Because wastewater from a nearby gas well leaked into the field where the cattle were.

The first signs of possible trouble came when pooling fluids seemed to be killing the grass. Oh, and did I mention that the farm sits right on top of the Marcellus Shale? An article over at propublica.org indicates that the owners of the farm notified the nearby well owner, East Resources, Inc.

The article also states that the PA Department of Environmental Protection determined that the fluids were a mixture of fresh water and wastewater that had been injected into the well. They leaked (!) from an impoundment pit on the farm. And guess what was found in those fluids? “Hazardous chemicals and heavy metals, including chloride, barium and strontium.”

Now, there haven’t been any reports of harm or illness of the cattle in question and it’s not clear whether any of the cattle had actually ingested any of the contaminated fluids. The quarantine was precautionary—to ensure that if there were any contamination, it would be contained to the animals and not be heading off to market somewhere.

The area in question has since be fenced off by East Resources—and clean up began to remove the contaminated soil.

The East Resources well, by the way, has also been shut down.

Tags: fracking, gas drilling, hydraulic fracking, hydraulic fracturing, hydraulic-fracturing-water-contamination-epa-fracking-hydrofracking, natural gas

This was posted on Monday, July 12th, 2010 at 11:43 am and is filed under Environment . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.